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Marketo Expands Its Social Horizons June 04, 2012 The way people and companies decide what to buy is changing, becoming intractably intertwined with social recommendations, noted Sanjay Dholakia, SVP of Marketo's product marketing and corporate development. "This means that consumers and buyers have ability to educate themselves instead of going to salespeople with their questions, and they are increasingly doing so."

How Nonprofits Can Stay Legal When Going Social June 02, 2012 Social media is a powerful tool that nonprofit organizations can use to quickly, cheaply and personally engage with funders, volunteers and clients. But while the benefits of using social media are vast, challenges and legal risks exist. Here are some tips and traps to keep in mind and discuss with your lawyer if you have any questions.

Seamless, Smart, Successful Social Marketing June 01, 2012 Engaging the customer has always been fundamental to doing good business. It's just that now that engagement often starts in digital, social media realms. The trick is to figure out how to make one's content as interesting as all the other content that shows up in the newsfeed, and this is where social media marketing companies come in.

Is Pinterest Sticking It to Facebook on E-Commerce? May 31, 2012 It appears that Pinterest may have a greater propensity to inspire its users to buy products after viewing them on the site than other social networks, based on recent research. For example, Pinterest users are 79 percent more likely to purchase something spotted on Pinterest than Facebook users are to buy something they see on Facebook, according to a new study.

Salesforce's Buddy Media Buy Could Produce a Power Couple May 30, 2012 Salesforce.com is reportedly close to acquiring social media marketing manager Buddy Media for about $800 million. Buddy Media's main business is helping corporations manage their brand presence on Facebook. It has branched out to other social media platforms, including Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Connectivity: The New Currency May 29, 2012 The trend toward an "always on, always connected" lifestyle driven by the use of social networks and mobile technology has, if nothing else, groomed consumers to become demanding in their expectations of the online experience. Unfortunately, the e-commerce experience has changed little since early days and, until recently, continued to be a process more to be endured than enjoyed.

Silverpop Gives SMBs More Social Media Pull May 21, 2012 Silverpop has been on the vanguard of old-school digital marketing providers -- that is, email marketing firms -- embracing social media. The company has released a slew of products designed to integrate the two disciplines. Given that history, it is difficult to imagine a subsector or market constituency that it missed in its earlier product rollouts, but apparently Silverpop has found one, and it has set out to rectify the omission.

GM Steers Away From Facebook May 16, 2012 General Motors plans to stop advertising on Facebook because the ad campaigns are not paying off in any measurable way. At $10 million, the company's ad spend on Facebook is relatively small. The reaction to GM's decision, however, has been disproportionately big. The timing of the news, of course, has much to do with the furor. Facebook is two days away from a blockbuster initial public offering.

Facebook Offers Users a Megaphone for Hire May 14, 2012 Facebook is testing a new feature that offers to promote users' posts and status updates for a fee. The new service is currently only available in New Zealand. There, Facebook users can pay $2 to "highlight" a post, making it more visible to a greater number of their Facebook contacts.

MySpace Privacy Shenanigans Earn FTC Finger-Shaking May 09, 2012 Social network MySpace settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Tuesday over charges related to how the site was using members' personal information. The social network had access to personal data from users, including their full names, ages and genders. MySpace promised users it would not share that information unless it received user consent.

Facebook Starts Stuffing Coupons in Users' News Feeds April 16, 2012 Facebook is rolling out its Facebook Offers service, a way for users to get discounts and promotions from local businesses via the social networking site. The offers will be distributed through users' Facebook news feeds. Users can then sign up to receive the offers via email and redeem them at participating businesses.

Is Google+'s Facelift the Sincerest Form of Flattery? April 11, 2012 Google on Wednesday announced new features for its Google+ social network. The Internet giant on Wednesday introduced what Google+ head honcho Vic Gundotra called a "more functional and flexible" version of the service. "With Google+, we're building a seamless and consistent social layer across Google," said company spokesperson Kat Eller.

Russia Mulls Putting ISPs on the Hook for Piracy April 11, 2012 Russia is considering holding ISPs responsible for unlawful file-sharing. From Giga OM: "Reports in the local media say that the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs is looking to bring in fresh laws that would make service providers responsible for illegal file-sharing between those using their networks."

How and Why Did 'Kony 2012' Go Viral Overnight? April 11, 2012 By now, you've seen the "Kony 2012" video, or at least heard of it, and you've heard the criticisms. And whether you are a supporter or a detractor, you likely think the story's done, a passing fad lost already to shortened news cycles, fickle Twitter trends, and Facebook app archives. But that is not the case. Whether the newest chapters to the "Kony 2012" story will vindicate the effort remains to be seen.

Facebook Has Big Plans for Its Billion-Dollar Baby April 10, 2012 Facebook has snagged the highly popular photo-sharing application Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. It is among the biggest acquisitions in the social media space, second only to Google's $1.65 billion stock-for-stock purchase of YouTube in 2006. The deal, both in size and intent, is very much a departure for Facebook.

Small Screen Gets a Lot of Video Action April 03, 2012 It finally has happened -- the number of U.S. mobile subscribers who own smartphones is just about equal to the number who own feature phones, according to new data. As of Feb. 2012, 49.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers carried a smartphone -- an increase of 38 percent from Feb. 2011, when only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones. The driver behind this trend was the lopsided adoption of smartphones by mobile phone buyers in recent months.

Partnership to Align Phone System Data With CRM March 19, 2012 M5 Networks has partnered with InsightSquared to create a solution that will allow customers to manage data generated from M5, along with data from other systems, in InsightSquared's business intelligence product. The solution will help customers manage data from their business phone system and other applications in one interface, and to visualize trends in voice and data to understand the "why" of spikes and valleys in activity.

Unforgiven: Customers Need to Show Some Common Sense Too March 15, 2012 In the UK, supermarket chain Tesco is being pounded right now in social media channels because it's refusing to honor an erroneous online advertisement offering new iPads for about $65. The offer went viral, and now the backlash is viral, too. How Tesco responds will tell the tale. I'd recommend a sincere apology, a few well-phrased jokes poking fun at itself -- and an offer to make it up to those who still want to buy an iPad from them.

Google+ and the Long Game March 12, 2012 Google+ chief Vic Gundotra sat down with Guy Kawasaki, cofounder of Alltop.com and founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures, at this year's SXSW convention. The topic at hand: how Google+ plans to remain afloat in the hotly competitive online social network space.

2011's Lessons for Holiday Retail 2012 March 10, 2012 OK, it's time to officially close the book on the 2011 holiday retail season and to shift our attention forward to 2012. For me personally, what makes it difficult to stop looking back are the new trends that emerged that will forever change holiday shopping: The empowered customer turned to multiple mobile devices to conduct mobile shopping; and social media sites such as Facebook proved they have an influence on consumer buying.